Posts Tagged ‘movie podcasts’

It was a real struggle, but I got the three “Couchcast” dudes off the couch one more time—for what seemed like an endless two minutes to them—so they could complete their interview with “Underground Nashville.” Part II of the interview is below.

“Couchcast” is a regular podcast featuring Vince Gaetano, Nick Benson, and Kenny Fisch, who have never once referred to themselves as “the three amigos.” You can listen to past and future shows at couchcast.wordpress.com. The guys’ latest installment, “Robbing from Kevin Costner,” finds them talking about Robin Hood and offering their edgy, off-beat predictions about Prince of Persia.

VINCE GAETANO: Well, for starters, I don’t consider “Couchcast” to be a review show. That is to say, reviewing movies isn’t our main goal. Really, it’s just our take on the movie business—our opinions presented in a light-hearted manner with the occasional fart joke thrown in to get a laugh. That, I suppose, would be the core difference: We don’t put entertainment above or below information. We keep it as equal as possible. Now, whether or not people actually find us funny is neither here nor there. The point is, we’re trying.

NICK BENSON: First of all, it’s a show. Most movie reviews are written and then you have to read them, which is really un-American if you ask me. Speaking of fascism, Roger Ebert and Peter Travers are the two primary movie reviewers of our time, and they are also like 90 years old. So our podcast is a bit more down-to-earth and accessible to a younger audience. We are not really telling you what to watch or getting all artsy on your ass. We are just having a conversation about movies and hope that the listener will be able to form their own opinion based on what we discuss. We don’t take it too seriously and we are certainly not above anyone’s heads. If anything we are very, very beneath you.

KENNY FISCH: I’ve never seen Roger Ebert review anything, so I assume our show is much different than his.

UN: What do you hope listeners will get out of each podcast?

VINCE: In a word, fun. Honestly, we didn’t start this podcast to change anything. We’re not trying to make any sort of impact. Most of the time, we’re not being serious. We’re just having a good time. And we hope you’re having one, too.

NICK: I hope that they will have fun and get a laugh. That’s the primary purpose of any form of entertainment: enjoyment. A bonus would be if they get some useful information out of it. It’s just another place to go to for some information on movies. I’d like people to be able to start e-mailing us and saying, “Hey, I actually really liked Avatar and you and Vince can go blow me.”

KENNY: I hope they have a good time, a couple of laughs, and [that they] don’t unsubscribe. Even if they think it’s stupid, in the end, at least it’s different than other reviews.

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.” He also is a freelance publicist and copywriter.